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John LaMarr
John LaMarr is the Human Lieutenant Commander and Chief Engineer of the [[USS Orville|USS Orville]]. According to Admiral Halsey, John served with the Orville under the previous captain as Lieutenant and Navigator prior to Ed Mercer assuming command.Episode One: Old Wounds. John serves as Navigator for most of the first season. He was promoted to Chief Engineer in the episode New Dimensions, replacing Steve Newton. John LaMarr is portrayed by J. Lee, whom creator Seth MacFarlane had in mind when he wrote the character. Consequently, John's personality and actions often reflect specific traits of Lee. Early history John LaMarr grew up in a young colony on an unnamed planet. He later described the colonists of his youth as a " lot of farmers, lot of builders, and they didn't trust anyone who was too much of an egghead."Episode Eleven: New Dimensions Deep-seated anti-intellectualism taught John to hide his brilliance from his peers.Episode Eleven: New Dimensions "You'd be surprised at how fast you can alienate people when you're always right," he later recalled.Episode Eleven: New Dimensions John attended the academy at Union Point. He earned some of the highest marks in the school's history, including scores in advanced engineering that were "off the charts," an achievement he keeps secret. After matriculation, his humble, guarded attitude led to a quiet career in the Planetary Union, though he did attain the advanced helmsman class of level eight early on.Episode One: Old Wounds. He was assigned to the Orville where he served as a navigator under an unnamed captain.Episode One: Old Wounds. Career As Navigator By September, 2419, John is serving as Navigator under the Orville's new captain, Ed Mercer, and working alongside a new pilot at the helm, Lieutenant Gordon Malloy.Episode One: Old Wounds. Gordon and he become friends in addition to co-workers: fighting in numerous battles as pilot and navigator and spending time together when off-duty. In the Orville's first mission, John proves himself a crucial member of the Orville's bridge crew. Forced into a battle with a heavier Krill destroyer, John assists Gordon maneuver the Orville in a difficult attack tactic called "Hugging the Donkey" to distract the Krill from capturing a shuttle holding the ground team, Doctor Aronov, and valuable technology.Episode One: Old Wounds. Perhaps John's most notable moment on the bridge came later that year. The Orville and an enemy Krill destroyer wage a protracted, vicious battle in which both vessels' hulls had severely weakened. The Orville in particular is vulnerable to even the slightest damage on the starboard side. With only minutes to spare, Second Officer Bortus, as acting commander, gives weapons controls to the Navigator, who targets the enemy's quantum engines. John knew that the Orville could not destroy the Krill's weapons fast enough; but the possibility that the enemy's engines were fatally damaged could save them if the plasma torpedoes could strike. The gambit works: the Orville's plasma torpedoes explode against the hull of the ship, destroying the engines inside, and saving the Union ship.Episode Four: If the Stars Should Appear Imprisonment on Sargus 4 In early 2420, John is assigned to a landing team on Sargus 4 to find two missing Union explorers. While teasing Chief of Security Alara Kitan, he simulates grind dancing on a statue of Mella Giffendon. His dance is witnessed by several passerby, one of whom records John's dance and uploads the video to the planet's Master Feed. John receives hundreds of thousands of "downvotes," public votes of disapproval, and John is arrested and forced to undergo an apology tour. The arrest creates a crisis for the Orville. Admiral Tucker forbids the Orville intervene by pulling John from Sargus 4 as it would contaminate the developing culture. John is sentenced to a final vote: if Sarguns cast over 10 million downvotes against John, he will be subjected to a drastic neurological treatment called social correction. Science Officer Isaac manipulates public Sargun opinion by uploading doctored videos of John in heart-warming situations to the Master Feed. The plan works and public opinion turns in time for John to avoid correction. Promotion to Chief Engineer The Orville's commanding staff had still not discovered John's remarkable academic record: first, because John's relaxed work attitude struck others as immature; and second, because neither Captain Mercer nor Commander Kelly Grayson had cause to review it. That cause came in several months later with the departure of the ship's Chief Engineer, Steve Newton. Steve transfers assignment for the chance to design a new space station. At his farewell reception, John and Gordon play a practical joke on Lieutenant Yaphit and Bortus by hiding a piece of Yaphit's gelatinous body inside Bortus's food. The prank incenses Yaphit, who reports the two to Kelly. The Commander reviews their personnel files and sees that John boasts some of the strongest Union aptitude ratings and Union Point academic performance records of all time. Kelly assigns John to assist Isaac and scan a spatial anomaly that damaged the ship's quantum engines, replacing Yaphit. John is uninterested in a promotion and assuming more responsibilities, but assents. After the two pore over data recovered by the team, John realizes that the spatial anomaly is a pocket of two-dimensional space. 's love for practical jokes got them in hot water when a prank on Yaphit goes too far.|left]] Meanwhile, Krill are alerted of a cache of stolen Krill weapons resting near the Orville in space. With the Krill closing in from almost all sides and the spatial anomaly behind them, engineering needs to find a way to escape quickly. John conceives of a "quantum bubble" that would allow the ship to maintain three-dimensional form inside a bubble while traversing two-dimensional space. John and Ed pilot a shuttle in front of the Orville that was modified to manifest a spatial conduit that permits the shuttle to enter two-dimensional space and towed the ship to a new exit to three-dimensional space. Sufficiently impressed by John's experience and new-found maturity, the Captain offers Steve's old position to John, leapfrogging Lieutenant Yaphit, who was next in line for promotion. John's first day as Chief Engineer stands as the capstone of the episode New Dimensions: Okay, everybody listen up. There's a new boss in town and his name is Lieutenant Commander John LaMarr. You guys ready to step it up? Okay, boom. Now, if we can increase engine efficiency to 97 percent by the end of the work week, we can all take off early and get wasted. Sound good? Well don't just stand there, snap to it. Personality John develops a reputation as laid-back but intelligent. Ed later describes him as "impulsive" but "fantastic at his job." When he appears on The Breakfast Show, John says that he likes soda, is a good driver, and can drink an entire bottle of tequila and say the alphabet.Episode Seven: Majority Rule. John gets along best with his bridgemate, Gordon. The two are laid-back and often disregard decorum. John drinks soda on the bridge, addresses other crew members as "man" or "dude," even to superior officers, and frequently makes openly critical or sarcastic remarks.MacFarlane, Seth. Orville 1x01 - Pilot. Fox Broadcasting Co. John jokes about Alara's inexperience after she demurred in the face of a decision. When Alara dares him to repeat his remark, he stands down and addresses her as "sir."Episode Two: Command Performance. Production The character of John LaMarr is mostly unchanged from the initial development stages of the show of April, 2016. In the pilot script, John is introduced as "co-pilot" and "level eight helmsman" of the Orville; and the character is described simply as a black man in his 30s.MacFarlane, Seth. Orville 1x01 - Pilot. Fox Broadcasting Co. Creator Seth MacFarlane wrote John specifically for the actor J. Lee, who protrays John on the show.LaPalme, Kevin. "THE ORVILLE’S J LEE AND HIS LEAP OF FAITH". LaPalme Magazine. Dec. 6, 2017. Consequently, some of the personality traits and quirks of John on film are in fact extensions of Lee's personality off-camera. According to Scott Grimes, the show's writers promoted John to Engineering because they felt that Gordon and John's personalities were too similar for television audiences. By changing John's position, rank, and work station, they felt they could separate the two as distinct characters."THE ORVILLE PODCAST EP 14 - THE SCOTT GRIMES INTERVIEW". The Orville Podcast. Dec. 8, 2017. Actor J. Lee explains John's casual attitude during introductions in Old Wounds as John's way to assess Captain Mercer: "When I first meet Ed, the new captain of the ship, I sort of take him in and size him up a little but then quickly shows how great of a captain he really is."Mayo, Lauren. "Actor J Lee talks artistry and new Fox series ‘The Orville’". Rolling Out. August 24, 2017. John often functions as a writer's tool to explain the story through metaphors that audiences will understand. For example, Isaac says that the Orville can enter Calivon space because Isaac is Kaylon. John summarizes: "White guy can go to Compton if black dude says it's cool."Episode Two: Command Performance. Trivia * He requests permission from Ed to drink soda on the bridge as long as he does not spill it. Later, during the Orville's first departure from Earth, John can be seen drinking soda on the bridge.Episode One: Old Wounds. ** In the original script, John spills his drink once Gordon "hugs the donkey."MacFarlane, Seth. Orville 1x01 - Pilot. Fox Broadcasting Co. * He finds blue jeans to be uncomfortably tight and to look ridiculous.Episode Seven: Majority Rule. * He loathes the music of Barry Manilow, which the rest of Engineering loves.Episode Eight: Into the Fold. * He has a crippling fear of clowns (''coulrophobia''), and considers "hobo clowns" to be the scariest of all. His phobia is so strong even the mention of the word "clown" causes him to grow noticeably uncomfortable.Episode Ten: Firestorm. with a fist bump for successfully navigating a dark matter storm and saving their ship.]] * He has one of the highest academic records from Union Point, and after Isaac is considered the most intelligent member of the Orville. * He experiences motion sickness when entering two-dimensional space, vomiting in front of the Captain. * John's character parallels Geordie LaForge of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. LaForge and John started on the bridge and later were promoted to Chief Engineers. * According to Lee, "Seth wrote the character with me in mind so we both say 'boom.'" LaPalme, Kevin. "THE ORVILLE’S J LEE AND HIS LEAP OF FAITH". LaPalme Magazine. Dec. 6, 2017. Appearances *''Episode 1: Old Wounds'' *''Episode 2: Command Performance'' *''Episode 3: About a Girl'' *''Episode 4: If the Stars Should Appear'' *''Episode 5: Pria'' *''Episode 6: Krill'' *''Episode 7: Majority Rule'' *''Episode 8: Into the Fold'' *''Episode 9: Cupid's Dagger'' *''Episode 10: Firestorm'' *''Episode 11: New Dimensions'' *''Episode 12: Mad Idolatry'' References Category:Characters Category:Orville Crew Category:Humans